- This month's top three research areas are tumors with a total of 19 publications, circulatory system studies with 18 publications, and the nervous system with 10 publications. These findings have been published in the "Journal of Personalized Medicine" and the "Journal of Clinical Medicine".
- Selected Paper in February：The use of traditional Chinese medicine in new patients suffering from head and neck cancers was increased.
In Taiwan, many stroke and cancer inpatients concurrently receive treatments from both Western and traditional Chinese medicine. There were previous studies exploring the use of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of head and neck cancer, but without discussion of those symptoms. The research team from China Medical University used sampled data in Taiwan National Health Insurance claims data in 2000, tracking and observing patients newly diagnosed with head and neck cancer from 2002 to 2007. The study examined their medical visits, symptoms, utilization of traditional Chinese medicine or acupuncture treatment, and other therapies. The group receiving traditional Chinese medicine treatment was further divided into those who underwent chemotherapy or radiation therapy, with two control groups who did not receive traditional Chinese medicine treatment.
The study found that the frequency of traditional Chinese medicine treatment increased with the number of years since diagnosis. Compared with the control group, the group using traditional Chinese medicine or acupuncture was mainly used to improve pain and injury symptoms. The patients who received chemotherapy or radiotherapy, the group using traditional Chinese medicine or acupuncture had less edema than the control group. The group receiving traditional Chinese medicine or acupuncture had a slightly lower mortality rate than the control group, but the difference was not statistical significance.
The author reminds readers that because this was not a randomly clinical trial, there may still be some differences in characteristics between those who were willing and unwilling to use traditional Chinese medicine or acupuncture treatment that could not be controlled in statistical models, so the interpretation of result must be conservative. Furthermore, this study used sampling data, so the number of samples was small. Research with larger sample sizes is needed in the future.
Highlight of FEB (2023) ：This month's primary focus revolves around the effectiveness of interventions for cancer treatment and the severity prediction of heart and kidney failure.
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